They’re in clouds, electric sockets and even on toast. Why do humans see faces in everyday objects?

## Summary
Photograph: Dave Gorman/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Our brains detect faces in inanimate objects, and in other visual patterns with no inherent meaning. So primed are our brains to detect facial features that we even see faces in meaningless visual noise, especially when the images are symmetrical, new research suggests. Photograph: Branka Spehar/UNSW Study participants were more likely to perceive the faces in both the objects and visual noise as male – a finding that backs up previous studies on face pareidolia. Asymmetric visual noise shown to study participants Alais said pareidolia arose as a “false positive” in visual processing. “One of the most highly adapted things we do with our visual system is detect the presence of faces,” he said. “You want to detect faces as quickly as possible, in case they’re friends or foes … but you get a bit of a by-catch, you sometimes catch false faces. “The contemporary view of the brain, and how it works to generate our perceptions of the world, is that it imposes patterns and predictions on incoming input,” he said. “It does that for reasons of efficiency and speed.” View image in fullscreen Photograph: Melinda Podor/Getty Images He said a brain system known as the face-selective network was geared towards detecting two eyes, a nose and a mouth. “We’re predisposed to use that sort of a template, and there’s maybe a bias to see faces in noise compared to other objects.” Explore more on these topics Psychology news Share Reuse this content

## Article Content
Our brains detect faces in inanimate objects, and in other visual patterns with no inherent meaning.
Photograph: Dave Gorman/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen
Our brains detect faces in inanimate objects, and in other visual patterns with no inherent meaning.
Photograph: Dave Gorman/Getty Images
They’re in clouds, electric sockets and even on toast. Why do humans see faces in everyday objects?
Human brains are designed to detect faces as quickly as possible, which can lead to the perception of ‘false faces’
Faces: we see them in clouds, electrical outlets and even a
$28,000 toasted sandwich
said to look like the Virgin Mary.
Known as face pareidolia, seeing faces in inanimate objects or patterns of light and shadow is a common phenomenon.
So primed are our brains to detect facial features that we even see faces in meaningless visual noise, especially when the images are symmetrical, new research suggests.
Objects are people too: the quirky world of facial pareidolia – in pictures
Read more
In a study published in the journal
Royal Society Open Science
, researchers showed participants everyday objects that resembled faces, as well as abstract images of visual noise that had no inherent meaning.
The vast majority of participants – 90% – reported seeing a face in at least one of the noise images.
Study co-author Prof Branka Spehar of the University of New South Wales said researchers wanted to investigate whether images more minimal than objects with face-like features, with “two round things which could be eyes … and a horizontal thing which could be a mouth”, would elicit similar visual responses.
People saw faces more frequently in the images of objects (96.7% of images) than visual noise (53.4%).
People see faces even in images of visual noise, particularly when they are vertically symmetrical.
Photograph: Branka Spehar/UNSW
Study participants were more likely to perceive the faces in both the objects and visual noise as male – a finding that backs up previous studies on face pareidolia. The reason for this gender bias was unclear, Spehar said.
“People tend to see pareidolia images as male and young and happy,” said Prof David Alais, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Sydney, who was not involved in the research. “The most striking pareidolia images have these … open, wide-eyed expressions that maybe make you think of youthful enthusiasm, or babies.”
However, the faces perceived in artificial noise were more likely to be seen as older and angrier, while the object faces were more likely to be seen as happy or surprised.
The reasons for this were still unknown, Spehar said, suggesting that perhaps our brains are primed to identify threats in unfamiliar environments.
View image in fullscreen
Faces in objects are often perceived as young, male and happy.
Photograph: PhotoAlto/Laurence Mouton/Getty Images
In a second experiment, the researchers showed short clips of moving noise in both random and vertically symmetrical patterns. Participants saw faces more often in the clips that were symmetrical (65.8% of clips) than the random patterns (23.6%).
People were more likely to identify faces in vertically symmetrical visual noise
Participants reported seeing various images – such as dragons and demons – in the random noise. “Once you introduce vertical symmetry, faces predominate,” Spehar said.
Asymmetric visual noise shown to study participants
Alais said pareidolia arose as a “false positive” in visual processing.
“One of the most highly adapted things we do with our visual system is detect the presence of faces,” he said. “You want to detect faces as quickly as possible, in case they’re friends or foes … but you get a bit of a by-catch, you sometimes catch false faces.
“The contemporary view of the brain, and how it works to generate our perceptions of the world, is that it imposes patterns and predictions on incoming input,” he said. “It does that for reasons of efficiency and speed.”
View image in fullscreen
Photograph: Melinda Podor/Getty Images
He said a brain system known as the face-selective network was geared towards detecting two eyes, a nose and a mouth. “We’re predisposed to use that sort of a template, and there’s maybe a bias to see faces in noise compared to other objects.”
Explore more on these topics
Psychology
news
Share
Reuse this content

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
- The reason for this gender bias was unclear, Spehar said. “People tend to see pareidolia images as male and young and happy,” said Prof David Alais, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Sydney, who was not involved in the research. “The most striking pareidolia images have these … open, wide-eyed expressions that maybe make you think of youthful enthusiasm, or babies.” However, the faces perceived in artificial noise were more likely to be seen as older and angrier, while the object faces were more likely to be seen as happy or surprised.

### Implications
- Human brains are designed to detect faces as quickly as possible, which can lead to the perception of ‘false faces’ Faces: we see them in clouds, electrical outlets and even a $28,000 toasted sandwich said to look like the Virgin Mary.
- Study co-author Prof Branka Spehar of the University of New South Wales said researchers wanted to investigate whether images more minimal than objects with face-like features, with “two round things which could be eyes … and a horizontal thing which could be a mouth”, would elicit similar visual responses.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers faces, images, visual topics. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 708.